The State of Fort Sanders (Page 2 of 5)

January 10, 2008
By: Knoxville Voice

Most of the crimes reported in Fort Sanders during the fall semester were robberies, muggings or assaults. The most recent incident, an armed robbery, occurred Dec. 7 on Laurel Avenue and involved one UT student and two suspects.

In response to the wave of crime, UT held Fort Sanders Safety Day Dec. 3. University of Tennessee Police Department officers, Knoxville Police Department officers and Student Government Association members passed out miniature plastic flashlights and urged students not to walk alone at night. They also reminded students of the Blue Light emergency phones located around campus.

But were there more incidents last year than the previous year? Though statistics for off-campus crime won’t be available until later in the year, UTPD Capt. Keith Lambert believes there is not.

“The biggest difference is we have taken advantage of newer technology to get notifications out to students if they live in or frequent this area. The reality is, if you go back and look at the crime statistics for previous years, there’s 10 [incidents in] one year, 12 [incidents in] one year. It has been happening for a number of years, we just didn’t have the resources to get the information out to people,” Lambert says. “We’re not trying to move people out of the Fort or be alarmists, we just want people to make more informed decisions, based on what has happened there.”

The Fort Sanders area is in KPD’s jurisdiction, not in UTPD’s coverage area, but Lambert encourages students to make use of the UTPD if needed. Lambert says: “We realize there’s a large number of students and staff in the Fort. We will send people immediately if necessary.” Darrell DeBusk, public information officer for the KPD, did not respond to Knoxville Voice phone calls by press time.

Student response to recent crimes has been varied. For some students, like junior English major Caleb Cox who lives in the Fort area, the news has made them less at ease in the neighborhood. “I haven’t personally had any problems with crime,” says Cox. “I know people who have, but me, personally, I haven’t, but I get nervous now whenever anyone talks to me on the street. You know, if they ask you for change or directions, I’m like, ‘I might get mugged. It’s about my time.’”

Others, like recent UT graduate and former Fort resident Jeremy Hunt, aren’t as concerned. “When I was walking around here, there were always lots of cars around, so I never really worried about it,” says Hunt. “There are always so many students around. I figured someone would hear or see if someone tried anything.”

Property manager Jordan McMahan of Prime UT Housing, which primarily houses students in its 134 units, sees students and parents shaken by recent events, but says the criminal acts don’t dissuade most from living there. “We get phone calls from parents when they get the alerts. I assure them that things like this aren’t limited to the UT or Fort Sanders areas, but it’s something that happens on every college campus area,” McMahan says.

Long-time residents seem less anxious. Carolyn Hankley has lived in the Fort Sanders Manor on 17th Street for almost 42 years. Her car has been broken into several times over the years, but she says she has always felt safe, even lately. “I don’t think it’s changed that much in the last several years,” says Hankley. “I moved there mostly because I didn’t have a car at first, and so for 33 years, I walked to work. [In]1999 was when I had to quit walking because I got arthritis in my feet and legs. Now only on occasion do I walk, but it’s because of the arthritis and not because I’m afraid to walk.”

Development in the Fort

Several residents believe the biggest threat Fort Sanders faces is not necessarily the current band of crime but the destruction of its most valuable asset: the Victorian-style homes built between 1880 and 1910. A major reason it faces that danger is because it is now predominately a university-housing district.

Most houses in Fort Sanders are subdivided into smaller rental properties as they were in the 1930s. Those who are concerned about preserving the historical homes say their owners and landlords, many of whom do not live in Knoxville, often poorly maintain rental properties. Kim Trent, director of Knox Heritage, Inc. says: “You just watch an old house tumbling down what we call the rental food chain. It starts out nice and then it gets worse and worse, and it’s not kept up and then you get down to the bottom and it’s finally condemned and you tear it down and build some horrible brick or concrete block box in its place.”